Starpoint consumers and staff are beginning to see the fruits of their labor at their garden plot located in the Vineyard Community Garden.

Starpoint provides services to adults with cognitive and physical challenges. Staff member Margie Bergonzini and a team of consumers and fellow employees have been caring for their plot throughout the summer, at least four days a week, watering, pulling weeds, harvesting and sometimes even helping others care for their plots.

Two of the consumers, Josiah R. and Wayne L., whose last names are being withheld per Starpoint's policy, attended a gardening workshop along with Bergonzini in March at Vineyard Church, where the community garden is located.

Bergonzini said they learned about organic gardening, and they discussed the commitment required to participate in the community garden. The team then spent the next couple of months talking to master gardeners who also offered organic plants and seeds, she said.

In late May, Bergonzini, Wayne, Ruben D., Rebecca S. and Gary S. planted beets, carrots, four varieties of lettuce, two types of radishes and onions, as well as lime thyme, English thyme, oregano, basil, fern dill, marjoram, rosemary, chives and Italian parsley.

"Gary gardened with his mother and Wayne did this with another facility in Glenwood Springs," Bergonzini said. "They showed each other how to plant — they were naturals."

She said most of the other consumers have not had a lot of gardening experience, but they caught on quickly. Rebecca S. said she learned about gardening when she attended school in Arkansas, and she especially enjoys hand watering the plants with water pumped in from the nearby Arkansas River.

"I know exactly about how much water to give them," she said.

Bob Schukert said he likes watching the consumers take ownership of something they helped grow with their own hands.

"The greatest thing is the fact that they are seeing they can accomplish a lot without working more than what they think they can work," he said. "They see there is a relationship to what you put in it you get out, but it is not something that discourages them."

Schukert said participants with all levels of disabilities can take part in the garden.

"It's something everybody can do, they don't have to stand and watch," he said. "That's what we are all about, giving them as much of an experience as possible."

The consumers have enjoyed the gardening project so much, Bergonzini said, they already are planning to do it again next year with more plots and more varieties of vegetables. They said they would like to grow horseradish, lemon grass and rutabaga potatoes.

Bergonzini said some of the excess produce is donated to the church café, consumers' parents and providers, and staff.

"When the consumers present their harvest to friends and family, they are simply beaming with pride in their accomplishment," she said.

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